Sensitivity is the ability of a test to correctly identify a person with a disease (true positive). Specificity is the ability of a test to correctly identify a person without the disease (true negative). The Micronutrient test is not a diagnostic test for disease.
The Micronutrient test is a direct quantitative measurement of the amount of micronutrient in the serum, white blood cells (WBC), or red blood cells (RBC). The Micronutrient test validation study validated the analytic accuracy and precision of the Micronutrient test.
Accuracy refers to how close a measurement is to the true value. The accuracy of the Micronutrient is determined by ‘spike and recovery’ in which a known amount of the analyte (e.g., vitamin D3) is added- ‘spiked’- into the test sample matrix, then the test is run to measure the ‘recovery’ of the analyte. Each micronutrient measured in the Micronutrient test met the validation acceptance criteria (85-115%). Information for percent recovery of each analyte can be found in the Validation Report (e.g., Vitamin D3 95%, 95%, and 100% on 3 different runs).
A test is said to be precise when repeated tests of the sample give similar results (the results are ‘reproducible’). When a test is precise, the amount of random variation is small. The precision of the Micronutrient test is determined by repeat analysis of each analyte and the coefficient of variation (CV) is determined for each analyte. A CV <10 is very good, 10-20 is good, and >30 is unacceptable. Information for CV of each analyte can be found in the Validation Report (e.g., Vitamin D3 5.7%, 6.4%. and 6.8%).
Validation Reports are available to licensed healthcare providers with a Vibrant America account.
